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Namibia Rhino Poaching Drops in 2019, After Sharp Rise Last Year

Reuters

   WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA - Rhino poaching in Namibia dropped to 41 individuals
   killed in all of 2019 so far, comparedwith nearly 72 during the same
   period last year, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism said
   Saturday.

   Namibia has the second-largest population of white rhinos in the world
   after South Africa and, according to NGO Save theRhino, it holds
   one-third of the world's remaining black rhinos.

   Poaching in Namibia to feed mostly East Asian markets has yo-yoed since
   peaking in 2015 at 95 rhinos, falling to 60 in2016, 36 in 2017 and then
   going up to 72 again last year -- all figures counted from January
   through mid-December.

   "The public continues to assist us in arresting perpetrators of this
   crime," ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said bytelephone. "We have
   also beefed up our intelligence so that we can anticipate poaching
   activities before they happen."

   Despite being composed of the same substance as hair and fingernails,
   rhino horn is prized in East Asia as a supposedmedicine for multiple
   ailments, and is also prized by business elites for trinkets and other
   products because of its rarity.

   While cracking down on poachers, Namibia is also lobbying against the
   rules that govern the global trade in endangeredspecies, after other
   countries rejected proposals to relax restrictions on legal hunting and
   exporting its white rhinos.It wants to allow more trophy hunting of
   rhinos and export of live animals, arguing that the funds it would
   raise wouldhelp it to protect the species, an argument rejected in
   August by countries that are party to the Convention on International
   Trade in Endangered Species.

   The ministry's data showed 329 people were charged with poaching
   offenses between 2014 and 2018, of whom all wereAfrican apart from 17
   Chinese.

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